Page 83 of After Darkness Falls

“Chloe, you were born to lead our house into the light. Because you have compassion, heart, and strength. Without you, our kind will rise again. There will be another Age of Blood, and none to stop our rule. The six clans will systematically destroy all threats—the witches, the huntsmen, anyone with a good heart, while they're scattered. You will unite them. You can rule all."

She snorted. That certainly was another level of flattery.

"Right."

Just one word, but it dripped with the perfect amount of sarcasm.

This time, Eirikr's smile was devastatingly beautiful.

"Prove me wrong, then. Unless you're a coward. Which would be unseemly. My house has never fathered any spineless wenches."

Anger. He was trying to provoke her, and it was working, awakening her mind a bit.

She was no coward. She was just…

Tired. So very tired.

"As we debate, one of your friends is dying. There is no stopping it, but how many will follow? Another one has been bitten by a feral. Will you wallow in self-pity at my feet when the blood in our veins is the only cure?"

Her eyes widened.

"Who…where—" As difficult as it was, she closed her mouth to swallow some saliva before forcing out a complete sentence. “I thought there was no cure?”

Levi had said a feral’s bite was contagious and impossible to reverse.

“There wasn’t. Not with me stuck in here and your mortal blood still running through your veins.”

She was confused, and to her relief, Eirikr didn’t wait for her to ask questions before explaining, “I do not drink human blood. From the very beginning, my everything recoiled against it, and for a time, I drained whatever game I could hunt in the woods—bears, deer, even rats. But as Ariadne’s sickness spread through the lands, I found another food source.” His lip curled over his teeth. He had two elongated canines on each side.

Then she understood. He drank vampire blood, not human blood.

And he wasn’t crazy.

“My house has evolved to survive on vampire blood without giving in to the frenzy that renders the ferals mindless. Those two thousand years of evolution course through your veins. A few drops of your blood would be enough to reverse the process.”

Then Eirikr extended his arm again. His dark blood still marred his skin, but the wound he’d inflicted on himself had long been healed.

"Drink, little daughter. Drink and rise. For their sake, if not yours."

She wrapped her fingers around his forearm. Her eyes focused on the veins. The blood moved faster at each of Eirikr’s slow heartbeats.

She felt a strange numbing pain around her gums and tasted iron in her mouth. Her blood. Sweeter than she remembered. Unfamiliar.

Chloe opened her mouth wide to accommodate her new fangs, then closed it around her ancestor’s wrist, trying to aim for the veins.

And then she drank.

And drank, and drank again.

She’d never been one to get drunk, because no cocktail had ever been so succulent, heady, addictive. She moaned in delight, holding on to Eirikr’s arm with her second hand.

He laughed.

“Try not to drain me, will you? It has been long since I’ve enjoyed the benefits of having a decent amount of blood in my system.”

Oh. Right.

Chloe let go of his arm. Right. She was drinking from a person, not a martini glass with a little umbrella.

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